Those cases are also connected to a California murder case, authorities said, but they didn’t provide more details. They’ve scheduled a news briefing for Thursday in Concord to release more information.

Police recently searched a Manchester home where 23-year-old Denise Beaudin lived with her infant daughter and a boyfriend. Beaudin’s family last saw her on Thanksgiving in 1981. When relatives went to visit a few days later, the couple and their daughter was gone.

The Manchester house investigators looking for Denise Beaudin checked out Tuesday. (WBZ-TV)

Her family assumed they left town to avoid financial troubles and never called police. The attorney general’s office said it has been in touch with Beaudin’s daughter and knows where her boyfriend, Robert “Bob” Evans, is. Authorities recently opened a criminal investigation into Beaudin’s disappearance based on new information.

In 1985, a hunter discovered the first two bodies — the woman and a girl believed to be 9 or 10. In 2000, an investigator found the other two girls — one believed to be 2 or 3 and the other 3 or 4. They believe the woman is likely the mother of the eldest and youngest girls.

The time of their killings was narrowed to 1980 to 1984. The woman and eldest child show signs of blunt-force trauma. Investigators haven’t released the cause of death for the two younger children.